


Casualty Assistance

by NeonFox



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, What the heck did happen to Jimmy?, se 5 ep 1 Sympathy for the Devil, sort-of canon character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-14
Updated: 2012-02-14
Packaged: 2017-10-31 04:34:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/339927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeonFox/pseuds/NeonFox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some news has to be delivered in person</p>
            </blockquote>





	Casualty Assistance

A few months later, Amelia came into her kitchen to find a man standing next to the table.

"Jim," she said, and only realized she'd dropped her empty mug when she heard the sound of the crash.

The man met her eyes and said, "I'm sorry. I'm not your husband." His voice was familiar and strange, Jimmy's voice but harsh and low in a way Amelia had heard from her husband only once, in the wake of the miscarriage whose complications had ensured Claire would be an only child.

"You're the angel," she said. "Castiel."

"Yes."

Amelia studied his face, searching for something; she wasn't sure what. He let her, impassive as Jim never was, even sleeping.

Finally she said, "Why are you here?" Her hands were clenched tight together, almost hard enough to hurt, and she spared a moment to be glad Claire wasn't home. (A few months ago, she'd have thanked God; now, she was just _glad_.) No matter how much she hated to let her daughter out of her sight, sleepovers were part of _getting back to normal_.

The angel looked away. Amelia knew quite well how Jimmy's face conveyed his emotions, and the changes were still there, only muted. The angel looked sad. "I came to tell you," he said. Amelia recognized that he was steeling himself, and her heart clenched in her chest like a fist. "I came to tell you that Jimmy is gone."

"Gone," she repeated blankly, and then, "You mean he's dead."

"Yes," Castiel said. Amelia swayed and put a hand on the counter next to her to steady herself. She wasn't stupid; she'd known what it meant when Jimmy had agreed to take the angel into himself once more. But she hadn't been able to stop herself hoping, that Castiel would leave and release Jimmy and he'd be able to come back to them.

"How?" she asked. Castiel cocked his head in puzzlement, a gesture so completely _not_ Jimmy that she had to raise her free hand to her mouth to stifle a sob. After a second she choked out, "How did he die?"

"I was...destroyed," the angel said. "Jimmy's soul was released."

"But you're here," she protested.

"I was brought back," Castiel said. "I think...Jimmy had given enough, more than enough. He has gone to his reward."

That phrase, which would have sounded trite in any other mouth, suddenly enraged her and Amelia couldn't stop her voice going hard and ugly. "His reward for letting you wear him like a suit, for getting shot, for being taken away from us. His reward for that was to _die_?"

"His reward for that was Heaven," the angel said. His rough voice was firm and certain, and the anger leaked away as fast as it had come.

"I guess you'd know," Amelia said.

"I do. Amelia-"

"Get out." She couldn't bear it any more, talking to her husband who was not her husband, this creature that had Jim's face and Jim's voice and even Jim's _clothes_ but wasn't him and would never be him. This was the third time she'd lost him, now.

"As you wish," Castiel said, and the sadness was closer to the surface. "I won't trouble you again. I thought it was my duty to tell you."

Amelia managed, "Thank you," but that was all. The angel made a motion with his hand, and Amelia followed it to her mug, sitting unbroken on the counter. There was a fluttering of wings, and when she looked back Castiel was gone.

**Author's Note:**

> So, in canon it is really, really unclear what happened to Jimmy. 2014!Cas doesn't seem to have any extra souls lurking around, and no one ever mentions Jimmy again. I choose to believe that he died properly when Cas got blown up in "Lucifer Rising", because if anyone deserves Heaven it's that guy.


End file.
